EFCC To Re-arraign Akinjide, Adeseun, Other PDP leader Over Alleged N650M Fraud
Report reaching Mouthpiece NG news room says the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) will once again re-arraign former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, jumoke Akinjide for alleged money laundering on June 11.
The anti-graft agency charged her along with a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader in Oyo State Chief Olarenwaju Otiti and a former PDP Governorship aspirant, Senator Ayo Adeseun.
They will be re-arraigned before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos.
Akinjide and others were first arraigned on Jan. 16, 2018, before Justice Sule Hassan on an amended 24-count charge bordering on fraud and money laundering.
The trial which started before Justice Hassan took another swift when the case was transferred to Justice Aneke.
The Nation reports that Otiti and Adeseun had on February 6 prayed Justice Hassan to recuse himself from the case.
They accused him of bias, claiming that as a former head of EFCC’s legal unit before he was appointed a judge, they did not believe they would get justice in his court.
Although the judge had refused to recuse himself, the Chief Judge eventually reassigned the case to Justice Aneke.
When the case was revisited on Friday before Aneke, the Defence counsel Messrs Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), O.F.A Adeosun and Akinola Oladeji prayed the court for another date for the re-arraignment.
Ayorinde said he and prosecuting counsel Rotimi Oyedepo were to appear in another trial before another judge.
He told the court that Oyedepo would want to be present during the re-arraignment.
His application was not opposed by other counsel.
The court consequently adjourned the case until June 11, for re-arraignment.
According to the EFCC, the defendants received money from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, in the build-up to the 2015 General Elections.
The money was said to form part of a total sum of 115 million dollars allegedly disbursed by Alison-Madueke to influence the outcome of the 2015 Presidential Election.